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AGING AND MEMORY

AGING AND MEMORY. The aging of America Conventional wisdom on aging and memory Neurobiological changes [demo] Neural mass decreases, 5-10% / decade Shrinkage; atrophy of “white matter” Frontal lobes particularly vulnerable Some atrophy, little cell loss, in hippocampus

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AGING AND MEMORY

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  1. AGING AND MEMORY • The aging of America • Conventional wisdom on aging and memory • Neurobiological changes [demo] • Neural mass decreases, 5-10% / decade • Shrinkage; atrophy of “white matter” • Frontal lobes particularly vulnerable • Some atrophy, little cell loss, in hippocampus • Decreases in neurotransmitters • Acetylcholine from basal forebrain • Dopamine receptors in frontal lobes • Decreased blood flow, metabolism • Less “functional activation” • Left anterior frontal during encoding • Right anterior frontal during retrieval

  2. HOW MEMORY CHANGES • The myth of inevitable, global decline • Deficits may be due to other factors: • General health problems • Medication • Depression • Self-concept, sense of “efficacy” • Educational level • Motivation and task engagement • Specific disease (e.g., Alzheimer’s)

  3. Age-related declines seen . . .More inThan inKinds of memory:declarative procedural explicit implicit episodic semanticrecent remoteTypes of tasks:complex simple tasks unfamiliar familiar tasks distractor no distractor divided full attentionrecall recognition

  4. Processes that are especially vulnerable: • Speeded information processing (the “general slowing hypothesis” of Salthouse) • Effortful, strategic encoding, more so retrieval (the “reduced resources hypothesis” of Craik) • Source monitoring and memory • Executive function, elaborative encoding and retrievalSimon (1979): Cued recallThe farmer drove thetruckFreeCuedYoung .50 .70Old .25 .25

  5. (Cherry, et al. 1993):contextual cues and “causal elaborations” • The grimacing man held the cheese... . as he reached for a salt cracker. (nonexplanatory context). .as the mousetrap caught his finger. (explanatory context)Type of contextnonexplanatoryexplanatory Base Full Base FullYoung .22 .47 .21 .76Old .06 .20 .10 .59

  6. Executive control in working memory (Baddeley)Salthouse & Babcock (1991) : “computation span” • Attentional allocation, inhibition of potential distractors from task or memory(Hasher & Zacks) • Broader context-priming effects • Greater stroop interference • More PI intrusions

  7. AGING AND MEMORY • Taking the edge off aging • Stay healthy and engaged • Regular aerobic exercise • Nonroutine, challenging daily activities • Provide meaningful organization and structure to tasks • Allow adequate time for encoding and retrieval • Minimize distractions, keep tasks simple • Provide extensive practice on new tasks, continued practice on old skills • Reminiscence in the elderly • Seeing coherence in one’s life story • Providing continuity over the generations

  8. Mental Exercise and Mental Aging • The “use it or lose it’ hypothesis • Evidence of “protective function” of mental activity Rutgers Newsletter • Salthouse (06): the need for longitudinal comparisons

  9. Suggests that mental activity does not Affect rate of decline with age

  10. Alzheimer’s and Memory • Demographics • C. 4 million afflicted, accelerates with aging (50% of 85 yr+) • 3rd leading cause of death • Costs approaching $100 billon annually • Etiology • Ultimate causes unknown • Immediate cause is degeneration of neural structure • Loss of mass, neurons • Impaired acetylcholine levels • Plaques of neural debris • Neurofibrillary tangles within neurons

  11. Early symptoms of dementia • Memory loss: misplacing things, forgetting to do things, disorientation, repetition in converstation, retrieval of familiar words and names • Procedural memory: deficits in performance of “simple” routine tasks; dressing, cooking, etc • Poor judgment: e.g., wrong clothes, inappropriate social behavior • Progressive Dementia • Increasingly severe impairment in cognitive functioning; semantic memory, language, autobiographical memory • Loss of motor control • Loss of self • The challenge to families

  12. fMRI and agingMemory Retrieval (Miller, 03) Top row: young adult (20 yr) Bottom row: old adult (70 yr)

  13. Source Memory Problems and Aging • Session 1: • view nonfamous faces • detect repetitions • Session 2 (next week): • view S1 faces, other famous and nonfamous faces • judge fame

  14. Episodic Memory Deficits in Alzheimer’s Disease La Rue, 1992: WMS loss (%) Paired associate recall 34 Paired associate recognition 5 Memory for visual detail 65 Story memory 80

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